Are AAA hardcore games doomed? an interesting article about the future

[Shin Asura]

Makes me wonder myself, with all the studios that get closed because they aren't able to make a profit for investors (which I totally hate about the game industry) what will happen in the future when there are only certain companies that have enough capital to make it happen. Makes me kinda worried, they've been so many mergers in the past few years because of money problems instead of mutual agreement

Are AAA Hardcore Games Doomed?

An in-depth look at the future of big-budget, blockbuster video games.

by Colin Campbell
JULY 30, 2012

As AAA hardcore gaming readies itself for a great leap into the next-generation, genuine concerns are being raised by games fans and by industry insiders that a nasty fall awaits.

The costs involved in making profitable, top-notch video games has created a very small niche of companies prepared or able to carry the enormous risks involved. Studios are being closed or radically downsized on a regular basis. Retail console games are operating in an ever-decreasing circle of genres and franchises.

This long console generation is slowly coming to a halt. But with free-to-play in the water, as well as mobile, PC games, and an ever-expanding choice of digital entertainment offerings, the next generation looks to be incredibly risky -- most especially for those who’ll be paying up to $100 million per game release to get on board.

Continued here

[LastManDancing]

I kind of seeing the video game industry like Hollywood, less big budget titles and a lot more smaller projects. Unless, the VGI can maximize their spending and cut costs I don't see a lot of AAA big budget blockbusters coming out. Instead, I see companies taking more risks on smaller projects (Journey, Shadow Complex, stuff like this) and more indie developed titles. Plus, the smaller titles will be released digitally.

But that's me, completely talking out of my bum.

[podsaurus]

Ok heres my problem why do games cost so much to make? This is kind of a rant btw just a heads up haha. Everybody is so obsessed with graphics and everything has to be fast. Faster loading, faster processors faster everything. It's all advancing too fast for me. I don't need to have graphics like BF3 on every single game I play. All setting set to max. Graphics are purely extra to me.

That fine if a game is able to pull off a full scale battle going on with lets say a volcano erupting realistically and oh my gosh it never drops below 60 fps! But if the gameplay is boring I don't care how pretty your game is it still sucks.

CoD is considered a AAA title but it isn't challenging to play. The last time I played CoD on the hardest difficulty was in 2. All that happened was one or two bullets kill me and I get spammed by grenades. I doubt its changed much. Its not challenging its obnoxious.

Take Arkham city also AAA game on hard and it is difficult to play but its hard in a way that isn't frustrating. Its very satisfying when I get through a fight. But AC has very nice graphics and was probably expensive to make. Take a game like Minecraft which has all the challenge and satisfaction I want without expensive extra fluff of graphics. These high end graphics and processing power is so unnecessary. Its slowing bleeding games dry.

[Shibby]

The quality of a game is not directly related to the cost.

There are 2 truths I believe in when it comes to the financial side of video games:
1) Good games will make money.
2) Shitty games will make money because of their name alone, even though they stopped being good X iterations ago.

On a side note, the terms 'AAA' and 'hardcore' are also thrown around without much thought these days. Neither of them directly correlate to 'good'.

[D3seeker]

A 'full package' game consists of more than it used to, rightfully so imho. From game-play to expanse to, yes even graphics. Of course that can only excel as far as the tech will allow it, and at a point there is only so much optimization that can be done with the X amount of programming/design methods out there. That is what the 'AAA' or 'hardcore' title is. Besides that the creativity seems to have diminished among the guys involved with said titles and that in my opinion is whats going to kill them off.